In 1758, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, published a song collection titled Hymns of Intercession for All Mankind. The last five of these forty hymns comprise a section of prayers titled, “Thy Kingdom Come.” One of those hymns, written by John’s brother Charles, is a favorite of mine. It is known by its first line: “Lo! He comes with clouds descending.”

My first experience of traveling abroad was a sightseeing trip to England. I planned thoroughly in advance in order to make efficient and effective use of my time. Late one afternoon after a long day in London, I made my way to Westminster Abbey, the home of every English coronation since that of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day in 1066 and a site of Christian worship since 960.

One of my favorite shows is The West Wing, which chronicles the fictional presidency of Josiah Bartlett and the sketches the inner working of White House politics. In the series, President Bartlett is compelled to invoke the twenty-fifth amendment, temporarily surrendering power in order to focus on recovering his daughter, who had been abducted in a terrorist kidnapping. Due to an elaborate course of events, the Speaker of the House, a member of the opposition party, becomes the acting president.

I grew up in a small town. Not so small that I was related to everyone, but small enough that I most likely knew someone related to everyone. It was the kind of town where the high school band had its own billboard out on the highway, the kind of town where churches used their signs to wish the baseball team good luck in the playoffs, the kind of town that drew more than 10,000 people to the rivalry football game.

In the spring of 1997, the third grade students of Dixon Intermediate School studied medieval European history. The culmination of the unit was a fair in which each classroom transformed into an aspect of medieval life: a monastery teeming with monks, a village market for showcasing traditional crafts, and a jousting competition complete with knights. The center of power, however, was across the hall in Mrs. Careese’s room, which had been turned into a castle filled with courtiers surrounding the kids who had become king and queen for the day. Even though we knew it was make-believe, we all wanted to be the king.

Given the unexpected, albeit temporary appearance of Pilate’s scruples, the religious leaders faced the challenge of convincing Pilate of the necessity of condemning Jesus. Pilate would not be sympathetic to their charge of blasphemy, so they built a case for sedition (Matthew 26:63-65; Mark 15:61-64; Luke 23:70-71). The first proof they offered was that Jesus was misleading the nation, where misleading in Greek is διαστρέφοντα (diastrephonta), meaning to distort, corrupt, pervert, or twist. This charge was based on their view of Jesus’ popularity with the crowds and his preaching of the inaugurated kingdom of God. They were threatened by Jesus’ following. Their long-held monopoly on religious and social order depended on the subservience of the people, but now the people were seeing their leaders’ clay feet. Rather than joining the people in following Jesus, they resolved the people were only following Jesus because he was misleading them.

I began studying the life of my great-grandfather in a time before newspaper archives had been digitized and published online. The research required me to spend hours in the university library in front of a microfilm machine. My data set was only as specific as a twenty year period he served in public office. With thousands of pages to comb through, I learned to look at certain sections and for key words as I glanced over the pages for information pertaining to his life. The process became easier over time, those key words seeming to illuminate and draw my attention to some previously undiscovered matter. Reading the gospels is like that. The more I read them, the sharper the relief that reveals a deeper understanding of the text and facilitates a greater application in my life. Such is the case in this passage. As I read the passage again, the statement of the Jews we would not have delivered him over to you caught my attention. Those words delivered him over drew me in to consider a previously overlooked detail.

We want to live in a community where law and order are maintained, but we willfully violate the speed limit. We expect our children’s words to be respectful and kind, but we model for them unrestrained speech. We plead with our physicians to find cures for our ailments because we fail to heed the warnings that could prevent our illnesses. We insist people forgive our sins and show us grace, but embody the wicked servant when it comes to settling those debts owed to us. We are hypocrites, plagued with contradictions, not all that different from those religious leaders who argued for Jesus’ execution.